Many of us never bothering checking our credit. Why? Because we feel like we’ve gone through a few rough patches; maybe defaulted on a loan, have a past eviction, or even stolen a few items from a rent-to-own business and the credit world has flagged us for life. This is why leaning how to check your credit for free will give you an overview of where you stand with your credit and see how bad it really is or isn’t.
First, let me say that you shouldn’t just assume you have bad credit. If you had a problem with not paying your bills, collections, or even judgments against you that does not stay on your credit report forever, so don’t just assume you can’t get credit because of your past.
Many sites will tell you to contact the creditor and pay off your old debt, but what the smart people will tell you is check to see how long ago your bad debt was reported to the credit bureaus. After seven years, many items will fall off of your report and while it is the honorable thing to contact your creditor and pay it off, the smart thing to do, especially if you don’t have the extra cash is to let it disappear into the sunset and be gone forever. Just remember, to never try to get credit from the company again because they will remember and turn you down flat.
One fantastic and free way to check your credit is through the credit monitoring sites like Credit Karma. Now this is not an advertisement for the website, but simply letting you know that by entering your personal information, you can get a full account of who you owe, how old the debt is, and how much they’re claiming you owe.
This site, like many others will offer suggestions based on your credit score, which they will provide to you, what credit you will likely qualify for. The forum is filled with others just like yourself who have had ups and downs with credit, so you will know what to expect before applying.
The truth is, some individuals are just afraid to check. They again, assume their credit is horrible so they result to having no bank account (due to bounced checks), no credit cards (due to defaults), and end up using the local check cashing brick and mortars and prepaid debit cards, both of which you have to spend money to have access to. This is just crazy to spend money to add money to a prepaid card, or to pay 3-5% to cash your paycheck.
If you’re ready to get your credit together and are able to use credit responsibly, now is the time. Once you’ve signed up and reviewed your situation, try the shopping cart trick to see if you qualify for department store credit cards. You can find this information at My Sista Gurl and see how easy it is to get cards like Victoria’s Secret, The Avenue, Gap, and more without a hard inquiry on your credit report.
Kimberly Best, freelance writer, has ghostwritten content in several different niches. If you need content for your web pages or help creating an E-book; let Kimberly express your thoughts through her writing.